Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with noise and apartments

What can I do about my problem neighbors?

vathek — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:27:39 -0800

My neighbors moved in two days ago, and haven't stopped yelling since. And they're drug dealers. Can I nip this in the bud? I live in an apartment complex in Baltimore. It's in a nice neighborhood but is owned by an doddering old slumlord. He's been totally unhelpful in the past, or else I'd call him first. I have plenty of weird neighbors, but these new ones are in a different league.

The new tenants moved in on Saturday. In the past forty-eight hours, they've been fighting constantly. All Saturday night there were weird sounds coming from their apartment, including lots of knocking on the wall. Today I heard one of them yelling about how the other one had commissioned a junkie to repair their bathroom (?!), given him too many Xanax, and now their bathroom is totally fucked up, which probably explains the noises. Last night somebody hung around outside yelling at them to let him in and give him his money. Then one of the tenants screamed until one in the morning about his partner sleeping with other men. Today they have been yelling about money and selling pills. One of them threatened to get the other one's probation revoked. There's been enough general drug talk and paranoid ranting to make me pretty sure they're all addicts. I heard them yelling about selling their Suboxone so they're probably junkies/ex-junkies, but their affect seems pretty tweaky.

So, in short, it seems like a volatile situation that could easily collapse on its own in a short time. I'm more worried that it might not. I don't want to say anything to the neighbors directly because they are so volatile and I don't want to make myself or my apartment a target. What I want to know is what I should be doing to protect myself and how best to set in motion a process that will either get these guys evicted/arrested or force them to shut up.

Should I send them an anonymous note pointing out that they've lived here for two days and have already tipped their hand about being drug dealers to everyone in the building, so maybe they could rein in the screaming at all hours? Or do I bypass this civility and just call the cops whenever they start yelling, selling drugs, or late night renovating? Do I stop in at the police station now and talk to them about my concerns? Do I send the landlord a registered letter? I realize the solution will probably be along the lines of "call the police early and often," but I want to know what else, if anything, I should be doing.

How do I walk more quietly?

oranger — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:20:54 -0800

My neighbors complained to me (in a polite, reasonable way) about me walking too loudly. How can I fix it? I moved into the second floor of a building, right above a family. I've been living there around three months, and my neighbor just told me about this recently. The place has pretty bad sound isolation, which is definitely part of the problem.

My neighbor was pretty polite and nice about it. He said that I'm generally not otherwise noisy, but that I'm the loudest walker who's lived in the apartment in all the time he's been there. I'm not inclined to believe that he's making it up or being overly sensitive.

I'd really like to not be a Horrible Neighbor, but I'm really not aware that I walk particularly loudly! I don't wear shoes inside or stomp a lot, and am not particularly heavy. I have hardwood floors, which are kind of creaky when I walk, and no carpets. I'm not really willing to get carpets. Are there magic tricks to this?

How to soundproof when living above a bar

maxreax — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:43:33 -0800

I moved in above a bar. The soundproofing is great, except for the vibrations from the lower bass frequencies. They're using wall-mounted speakers placed pretty close to the ceiling. Is it possible to soundproof against those? And what are some of the things the bar could do to help me? There are three mid-sized speakers mounted on a brick wall that runs through both the bar and our apartment. They're placed pretty high up on the wall--maybe eight inches down from the ceiling. We can't hear conversation or movement and rarely hear high frequencies from the music (sometimes when it's turned up loud we can hear vocals, but it's mostly just bass drum, bass lines, tom-toms, etc.) The bartenders are really nice about turning down the music when asked, but I'd like to reach a solution where I don't have to be constantly asking them to turn it down.

First, I'm wondering how much of a difference it would make if I could get the bar to a) move the speakers and b) install an equalizer or mixer that allowed them to turn down the bass. Those seem like easy (too easy?) compromise solutions, but I'm worried that moving the speakers further down won't do much since they'd still be attached to the wall.

My second question is, essentially, is it possible to soundproof against the kind of low frequencies that are vibrating our floor and wall? My research seems to indicate that these frequencies are really difficult to protect against, but I want to hear the hive mind's thoughts.

Summary: Apartment vibrates because of bass from wall-mounted speakers below. Will moving speakers lower down, or off wall, help? Will turning down bass help? Is it possible to soundproof this kind of problem?

(I love the apartment I'm in, and I've got a year-long lease, so I'd much rather look for ways to make it work (even if there are still small vibrations) than try to get out of the lease.)

Noisefilter (possibly literally?)

synecdoche — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:10:33 -0800

Is there anything we can do to keep our apartment a bit quieter? My girlfriend and I just moved into a new apartment, which we like very much. However, there is one problem: noise. We're on the top floor, but we can hear quite a bit of what our neighbour directly below us is up to.

I don't think he is (often) being excessively loud. For instance, right now, he's talking on the phone below me at what seems to be a reasonable volume, but I can still hear him and even, occasionally, make out the odd word. When his computer makes noise (such as when he gets an instant message on MSN) I know about it too. Things are a bit more frustrating when he listens to music. While there have been a couple of times when he has turned up the volume, for the most part it is, I think, fairly reasonable; it just seems as though the floor between our apartment and his is very, very thin. (I am not sure how much of what we do he can hear.)

I'm not sure what we can do. The floor is well-padded carpet through most of the apartment, though it is an older building. Most of the time he isn't really doing anything wrong, and it isn't as though we can ask him to not talk on the phone or ever listen to music.

Any tips on dealing with this? We're both grad students who do work at home, and would love things to be a bit better than "just tolerable." We're in Southern Ontario, if it matters. Thanks.

Finding quiet rental properties

antipasta_explosion — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:53:27 -0800

What are some good tips for finding a quiet rental property or apartment? I am an author and work from home a lot, so my work quality of course depends on being able to concentrate at my place of residence. I don't mind normal neighborhood noise and weekend parties, but it gets to be a problem when there's 2 am outdoor drinking on Tuesdays, boom car owners, stereos left on all night, and that kind of thing. I live in Texas, so we're talking about suburban houses for rent and apartment complexes.

Obviously the thing to do is walk past a property at 7 pm on a weekday and visit again on the weekend, to scope things out. In regards to apartments, comments on apartmentratings.com seem to give some perspective, if all the "wonderful community and friendly staff" shilling can be reliably weeded out.

A lot of this is common sense, I'm sure, but I want to have my ducks in a row. Are there any tips or observations you have for picking out a pleasant surrounding to settle down in? Are there any warning flags I should be looking out for? Personal anecdotes and stories are welcomed.

Any street noise reduction tips for a new apartment?

ambulance blues — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:29:59 -0800

I've lived in L.A. for several years. I've just signed a year lease on a place I like very much, except there's an increase in street noise both sporadic and repetitive that's got me worried. All of my windows face the street and all but one have wooden frames with old-timey latches that don't do a great job of blocking out noise. Does noise-reduction moulding work? Heavy curtains? Any tips for dealing with street noise/apartment building noise in general? And yes, I realize my mefi name is hilariously appropriate for this post.